Drivatar Difficulty in Festival Playlists

I started playing Festival Playlists recently and found that many of the items are too difficult to complete.

The biggest problem are the race events where I can’t change the difficulty of the drivatars.
I finish last most of the time. It simply seems that the drivatars to not have to respect the same laws of physics that we, the players, have to.
For example, if I run into a drivatar car, nothing happens to it and it gets back to the track instantly. If the car bumps into me, I lose all control of the car and I’m out of the race.

Anything above “New Racer” is really difficult to complete.
I am struggling to not finish last in races for the current series where the opponents are hard locked to Highly Skilled.

I am by no means new to racing games and I have no trouble playing (and winning) in other games, like F1 2021, Project Cars 2 and Dirt Rally 2.0, to name a few.

I am really struggling in Forza Horizon 5.

The only reason I was able to have fun in the game before is by playing on Tourist or New Racer difficulty.
But I can’t change the difficulty in playlists, which makes the game really not enjoyable and it’s impossible to complete the challenges.

Why is there not an option to select your difficulty when playing in the Festival Playlist?
It’s against bots anyway. I feel cheated, since I can’t enjoy the game I payed good money for and I really want to play it and have fun.
Is there any reason why this would not be a feature? Or maybe why AI is not fixed somehow, because currently they are unreal?

I tried different tunings, parts, cars, everything. Nothing works.
Cars just run into corners and get out without slowing down, like they’re on rails.

This is really ruining the game for me and all my friends, most of who are really experienced in driving games.
We also have a friend who has certain physical disabilities and it’s impossible for him to finish any of the challenges due to them being to difficult.
Why are the challenges that difficult? I see many people on Reddit and these forums complaining about the same thing, but no official reply yet.
It’s an arcade racing game, one would expect it to be fun, not an impossible choir.

Any thoughts on this one?

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FH5 at “highly skilled” level is a fairly average standard for any racing game. It really is a case of just getting better at video game driving if you are struggling to master that level of difficulty.

Feel free to post clips of your attempts at the seasonal playlist and I am sure people can provide some tips to help you improve.

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I’m 60 years old and only a very average driver in the game yet I complete all festival playlists. Could be you’re not using suitable tunes. I suggest tunes by ugrundy. I mainly use these.

Yup, the Cross Country championship was challenging this week as they often are. I had to restart the first race and do a few rewinds throughout all 3. Had 2 wins and a second. I used the M-B-X truck. The other championship was pretty easy. The Speed Zone PR challenge this week was hard. Took me about 30 attempts to do it.

What sort of input device are you using? I use a Elite 2 game controller even though I have a G920 wheel. I find I’m faster with a game controller as it has some cornering assists that you don’t get with a wheel.

One tip when doing S2 and S1 championships is to use a low PI tune rather than the highest e.g. for S2 rather than using a S2 998 tune you make your own at S2 901. The driveatars then will have their power scaled back to match. You’ll find the pace noticeably slower. This also works with S1.

Hope this helps.

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Good comments above, I’ll add…

Welcome ! That is a lot to digest and answer, I’ll take a shot at some of it though, my opinions :

I can’t say how it compares to other games mentioned, except to say all games have their own learning curve and skill set. Those probably don’t translate well to Forza. It is, sort of, an arcade sim racer but that doesn’t mean it’s all easy. Driven as you have been on lower difficulty it can be good fun but it’s not going to help your skill for the higher difficulty. Nothing says you need to play at higher difficulty but we all like a challenge sometimes.

When I started on Forza in previous editions it took me a while to learn the game but I found the best teacher was higher difficulty play. I was horrible at first but slowly improved. Start low and work your way up, advancing once you’re comfortably beating the game. The Rewind button can be your best learning tool. Make a mistake ? Rewind a bit and try it a little different. Repeat as needed. Find what works.

Second to that is find what works for you. That applies to setting your controls and finding a tuner who makes cars to your style of driving. That can take a while. I’d also suggest starting with the lower power cars until you have your reactions trained and know the tracks, then work up to higher powered cars. Have a look through :

Settings - Advanced Controls : Especially noting the various Deadzone ranges to tweak the best performance boosts, but those are, well, Advanced :wink: I’m still working out a feel for them myself so I can’t offer much help there.

The required Highly Skilled championships are meant to be hard. It’ll take time. If you’re running them solo (I recommend that, until you can consistently place top half finishes at least) again, use the Rewind as much as needed. And you don’t have to finish first in all races to get the overall points win. A second or even third in one of the races is often enough. For when you get there, I understand that’s not happening right now.

Yes, the Drivatars can be a major pain. They are AI though, and in ways predictable once you run against them enough. On that note some human players on your team can be just as bad, and less predictable. Playing the championships can be a help if you’re struggling, and get a good team, even if you finish last you might still get the win. Now some are going to complain about me suggesting the team should carry you. I’m not, exactly, saying that. See my previous about working on your skills in solo first… BUT… it might be worth a try having a go at a team run or two just to see. You might even do better in that and learn something to apply to practice.

For your friend, have a look (if you haven’t already) in :

1 ) Settings - Difficulty - Driving Assists Preset - All Assists : That will turn on all the helpers below, fine tune choices for what works, especially noting Steering and Braking (both of which need Driving Line turned on to work iirc)

2 ) Settings - Accessibility - Story Progress and Offline Game Speed : Those will make the game more forgiving and doable.

That said using the assists may not allow full completion of everything. Some things are hard by design and the assists can only help so much, else we’d just be watching a movie.

My final suggestion, very counter to even my own feelings at times, if you have fun playing it at Tourist nobody is saying you have to play it any harder. Do what is fun ! That’s the true point of a game. And there’s lots to accomplish even there. Sure, yon’t get all the fancy new prize cars right now. They’ll be be back when you’re playing more skillfully. Or available somewhere sometime probably. Like in the auction house (and trust me, you’ll probably get the money eventually). Or maybe in the Forzathon shop (farm some Forzathon shop points by playing the Arcade and try to keep a few hundred on hand). Skip buying clothing, emotes, horns… unless you really want one… and wheelspins, save your points for cars that are very pricey or otherwise hard to come by.

Hope that helps, again, above all, try to have fun and not fall into the trap of letting the “game” become a grind.

Peace.

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I think the best way to improve is learning the tracks like they’re the back of your hand and also becoming intimately familiar with the capabilities of your chosen car.

Learning the braking line is another key factor. Often times when you see an orange or red line you may not have to brake and just letting of the throttle will be enough and then you can carry more speed out of the corner.

A good tune can give you an advantage over the AI but not every tune someone shares will fit your driving style so it may take some time to find a tuner that suits you but they’re out there and when you find one be sure to follow them so their tunes will show up first in the list for you.

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If you play on controller and haven’t already this might help your racing a lot!

Turn off assists too and you will find your car behaves much more predictably.

Rivals is a great way to improve in terms of learning the courses. You set your best time then every time race a slightly faster ghost or pick one from the list so can even see what people do and if they have their tune uploaded by clicking their name and viewing their hub.

Hope this information is helpful.

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If you’re having trouble with the AI in a race, don’t be afraid to throw your elbows out a bit, i.e. use them as a rolling wall that you can happily bounce off. This is especially useful in sharper corners where the AI often brakes much more than you need to. Obviously don’t try these tactics against human players unless you’re willing to be despised, but I for one take great pleasure in hip-checking our robot overlords off the circuit.

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I have been playing FH and FM games for a long time. If I can’t win a race its almost always the I have on the car. 5 stars on a tune often means its very good, but no always.

I would also suggest doing what my friend told me to do… drive the course, not the drivitars. Pick the line that allows you to carry the most speed through the turns and you’ll find you pass the drivitars without thinking about it.

When I race its all about driving lines and good technique. I can race unbeatables and take first (which is easier now that they have been nerfed). If I can, then so can you. :slight_smile:

Just on assists I would suggest keeping the full racing line line on. Hopefully you know that it changes colour indicating whether you need to slow down or can take the corner at the speed you’re going.

Don’t be afraid of taking out Drivetars especially on road and dirt events where you have walls. Sometimes the only way to get past the first car is to dive bomb the corner taking out one or more driveatars. Then once you’re in the lead the driveatars behave a lot better and you can usually keep them behind without having to take as many risks as you did to get past them.

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It sounds like you could use some help mastering the game. If you’d like, I can coach you a bit. The AI doesn’t truly cheat below like Expert, besides playing catchup.

While I agree that various parts of the game not adhering to or being affected by the player’s chosen difficulty is annoying, I find this game easy to play compared to the three games you listed as being successful in. Which makes it seem to me like there might be something else going on other than AI difficulty or player skill that’s holding you back.

I feel your pain. I’m a 63 year old player. Been down the same road. But some of the sage advice above will get you across the finish line.

Someone mentioned Ugrundy tunes. Yes,use those. Also, Team Fung and Ven0m106 are good tuners too. It all depends on the car and the race.

And about assists, I run with traction and stability on most of the time. And the line on too.

For the championship series races, practice on the tracks on highly skilled or expert before taking on the series.

Highly Skilled is as easy as most other games… so you are doing something wrong. Try ramming the Ai out of the way. Also you need to add tunes to your cars. Just look for 5 star tunes as they will at least win the races.

It took be about a month of playing to get up to speed…
In addition to the above, play the regular races at a difficulty you are happy with, and it will periodically prompt you to move up a notch in difficulty if you are winning races . So do that.
I found it helpful as it keeps you on the learning curve.
As above you do have to develop a ‘feel’ for the game and your particular car.
Horizon tour can be useful for this too as it forces you to use different cars all the time so will give you a broader experience.

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I am a player who has been playing this series since FM1 and think I have average skills.

And I understand the OP’s feelings.
I don’t have as much trouble as the OP, but I still feel that some of the events have become more difficult than in past series.

The reason for this is obvious: the rubberbanding of the AI, which is worse than in FH4, and the course and weather conditions where they can use it more efficiently.

For example, in FH5 many season championships use circuit races instead of sprints.
AIs in the FH series tend to get stronger rubberbands in circuit races, and that has not been changed in FH5.
And low-grip surfaces, such as rain and dirt, also give the AI a higher advantage.

Fortunately I have beaten them, but for a player new to the game they can be hard to beat.

I wish at least other means of obtaining exclusive cars were more actively offered, but there is still no backstage pass in this game and the AH is a scalper’s heaven.
And wheelspin has been nerfed and racing does not generate enough revenue.

It has long been said that the Forza series is a game designed for car enthusiasts of all styles.
Furthermore, the FH4 and later titles have also appealed to accessibility considerations.

And while that is true in some respects, as a result of their more aggressive push for playlists and exclusive cars, these systems seem to be getting further and further away from the former ideal.

As the OP points out, it would be difficult for a player with a disability to win a season championship or trial.
And I have friends who are like that, but the same is true for players who are able-bodied, but whose main pleasure is painting and photography, and who are not good drivers.

I think the playlists and exclusive cars need to change somewhere to cater to such people, but I guess it’s hard to make that happen.

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I’m new in FH world, just play fh4 a bit and then switch to fh5 after it released. I play a couple month and then stopped in Dec because I get no idea how to tune the car. I recently played again in late of series 7 and can start beating the unbeatable in proper way after understanding how to tune the car event only in a few track with still use all driving assist and an automatic transmission.

In my opinion, the level festival playlist drivatar’s is below or same as pro level. Mostly the key to win the race is a car tuning, followed by brake and throttle timing and also car turn position. I’m agree that drivatar is a pain in the ass, no laws of physics, sometime they ram on purpose, and mostly they block your race line (Unbeatable is really mean), but I think that will be our way to mastering this game.

Feel free to try my tuning in HERE and share your thought, but use only the season 8 tuning because all the tune before is mostly jus a crap tuning (it’s embarrassing :sweat_smile:).

The main problem is not mainly on difficulty but the game only give you 1 week limited time to “git gud”.
And many online-random-matching game give you fair amount of “progression” to unlocks even you lose the game.(It only require you “do correct action” to earn points. But you get extra for winning)
You only have to replay it more times.

I do think they should allow players to set their own difficulty for seasonal championships and events the game is supposed to be about players being able to play how they want, and if they don’t allow that they shouldn’t promote the games as being about playing how players want to play.

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So long as it’s to be choosing harder, and not easier… starting at Highly Skilled upwards.

My point is players should be allowed any difficulty of their choosing that is what is meant by playing the game how they choose as that is how the game is promoted, but you very obviously missed that point.

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